Re: TC Secondary Currents - was ( Experimental Help - Terry?)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 3/8/02 2:11:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
writes:



>
> If you where a high school physics teacher, could you honestly
> recommend pupman as a place for a student to find out about TCs?
> --
> Paul Nicholson
> --



Hi Paul,
       A physics teacher I was 35 years ago, and will be again next year.
(pseudo-engineer in between) ;-) I would recommend the list for practical
information on construction and tuning techniques, but, only to the sharpest
students with the best tuned BS filters would I recommend much of the theory,
and not without a lot of follow-up discussion in class. 
       The problem with peer review as I see it in this context, is that many
of the fringe area investigators are peerless in their own opinions. Terry has
been bending over backwards to be generous with benefit-of-the-doubt and to be
non-authoritarian. (unless, of course, you use one of the 13 words that can't
be said on prime-time TV) That is his call, and I have to respect him for that
as well as his many quality contributions to reality. As they said in the '60s,
to have free speech you have to tolerate a lot of cheap talk. 
       I had a problem in my own experience in industry, where a co-worker, who
was a licensed engineer, misapplied a system simulation program in such a way
as to obtain a totally erroneous result. I went through a rigorous mathematical
and statistical analysis in which I clearly demonstrated the error and its
potential for negative consequences and presented it first to him, then to our
supervisor and three levels of management up to and including senior VP.
Unfortunately, neither he nor anyone in authority had the physics or
mathematical background to understand that he had been proven wrong. (Company
ended up paying $2M more in construction than needed.)
       I think this points to one of the attractions of Tesla Coils and 19th
century devices in general, and the attraction of fringe science theories. They
operate on a human scale. Between ~1860 and ~1960, electrical and electronic
devices could "make sense" to the naked eye. You could build an oscillator,
amplifier, power supply, etc., and trace through what was happening, how
electrons were flowing. In the glow of filaments, you could almost envision the
cloud of electrons moving. Over the last 40 years, these things have become
identical, tiny, featureless, black monoliths. Somehow it operates, but the
innards for most people, are on an incomprehensible scale. The same is true of
physics in general. Up until early in the 20th century, almost any bright high
school graduate and surely anyone with a smattering of college could grasp
enough Newtonian physics to have a good feel for how most of the things in
their world operated. The frontiers ! of science and technology are now on a
faster, grander and smaller scale than most people can grasp. The mathematics
and physics concepts needed to truly understand what is happening is beyond
most people. As I progressed through college, many of my classmates switched to
business courses or world literature rather than face the third semester of
"Fields and Waves" along with the concurrent tensor calculus, multivariate
analysis, abstract algebra, etc.
       Is it any wonder that when someone comes along preaching "You don't need
to understand this, it's all fake and a conspiracy anyway; any idea you think
up is just as respectable, unless and until you prove yourself wrong.", that
they will attract a following like a messiah? For those feeling "the world is
to much with us," overwhelmed by future shock and alienated by nano-technology
and Quantum mechanics, harkening back to a simpler age when anyone with a
little "common sense" could discover something useful, provides a comfortable
home. And fringe science fills that gap. This is not to say that it is the only
attraction of TCs, or that it is escapism for everyone, but it is a strong
magnet for those who feel technologi! cally disenfranchised.
       I believe that this may also explain the resurgence in popularity of
paganism, herbalism, homeopathy, magnetic talismans, crystal power,
chiropractic, copper bracelets, Creationism, UFOs free energy, etc.; simple
answers in a too complex world become an emotional necessity.
        Some approach the Colorado Springs Notes with the fervor of a
fundamentalist with the Dead Sea Scrolls. (All the Truth we ever need to know
is here, if we just interpret it properly) Probably less than four percent of
those with a firm opinion have the background to understand what they are
really for or against, and so arguments over fly-specks on the parchment go on
and on. So it is with the writings of "St. Nikola." 
       I don't have any answer to this problem, but I think this may be one
answer to question of why we have the problem.

Yours in reason,

Matt D.
G3-1085